Christopher Nupen talks to Anne Ozorio
about
the release of a series of Allegro Films on DVD

“Christopher Nupen pioneered a style of filming music and
music-making for television in which his excellence has
rarely been equalled and never excelled …. His films
will endure forever as reference documents to the executant’s
art in the 20th century and as constant sources
of musical delight” – Jeremy Isaacs
(Chief Executive, Channel Four and later General Director,
Royal Opera House)

Only a hundred years ago, there
was no way musical performance could
be preserved. The art of recording
is really so new that we haven’t,
perhaps, even begun to explore the
possibilities. Recordings alone don’t
capture the experience of live performance.
Filmed music is in itself a new art
form, which can expand a deeper appreciation
of what is heard.

Allegro Films is launching a series
of DVDs, to be distributed by Naxos.
These will be reference recordings,
for they preserve not only performance,
but the spirit of the artists, and
the context of the music.

Christopher Nupen pioneered the concept
of filming music. His film The
Trout, a performance of Schubert’s
great Quintet was something of a revolution.
It featured Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel
Barenboim, Pinchas Zuckerman, Itzhak
Perlman and Zubin Mehta, playing in
recital, but was filmed so sensitively
that it captured the spirit of the
artists as well as their performance.
Despite originally receiving a bad
review in the Times and being criticised
by the BBC , both for its form and
its title, it went on to become the
most frequently broadcast classical
music film ever made. .(see review)
In 2005, Jacqueline du Pre in Portrait
became the biggest selling classical
DVD of the year. .

Film adds a powerful dimension to
the music experience. As Nupen says,
film has been around long enough that
people are used to understanding its
“grammar”. People are used to the
way the medium works, and expect good
editing, good lighting, good framing.
Art films have shown that it is possible
to convey a lot more through film
than meets the eye at first. More
can be expressed in good images than
words alone can convey: “you cannot
film music, but you can film musicians
and they are riveting to watch …….
there is something in the great performers
that is deeply inside them … that
wants to communicate to the public
what they feel. Some even believe
that it is their duty on earth to
create music, and that the more the
public responds, the better they get
at it”. Music, in other words, can’t
be filmed, but the artist persona
can, and this enhances the musical
experience intensely. Just as a live
recital is more than just listening,
so is filmed music.

Indeed, it was a musician who first
understood the importance of film.
It was Jacqueline du Pré herself.
Nupen recalls: “I filmed something
and said to her, “It’s not nearly
so good as when you played it on the
stage, it can’t be”. But she said
“Rubbish, you’re wrong, it’s better
on the film”. I said, “What do you
mean, better on the film, it’s nowhere
near what you did on the stage”. She
said, and I quote verbatim, “Because
you can see what’s going on and it
adds another dimension”. It took me
years to realise what she was telling
me. She was telling me, when film
is well done and artists are giving
their all, there is something radiating
that is more than just music, it is
the artistic intention of the artistic
persona and you can see it! It’s the
human element of music”.

Anyone who watches du Pré playing
pizzicato cello on the train, singing
a French folk song, can never forget
the sheer joy of playing that she
radiates. Her artistic persona is
preserved for all time. Indeed, her
enthusiasm for music must have inspired
millions of people who never met her.
It is a lasting legacy, beyond even
her wonderful performances.

Nupen adds, “There is something spiritual
in music that seems to link us to
the eternal. That sounds like a highfalutin
statement but that is what caused
Kenneth Clark to say, “Once art touches
the soul, it calls that soul back
for the rest of its days”. People
are used to the power of film. It’s
possible that the market for classical
music hasn’t even been tapped, and
could be magnified many times over
if film could be used to bring in
audiences used to watching. Once people’s
imaginations are challenged by good
films, they go onto listening further
and enjoying the experience, just
as Kenneth Clark predicted. Television
does reach these audiences. When Channel
Four presented a sixteen week retrospective
of Allegro’s work in 1993, it was
their biggest success of the year,
overall. Indeed, if anything, classical
music may even mean more in modern
society with its upheavals, because
its spiritual aspects transcend the
temporal. That’s why, says Nupen,
so many people come to music at significant
times of their lives, say, at 21,
41 or 61, when they are thinking that
there may be more to life. In an increasingly
technological and impersonal world,
the humane language of music may be
even more important than before. A
philanthropist who would sponsor classical
music and film would give society
emotional and spiritual benefit, which
would be long term and lasting.

The BBC was founded on the belief
that audiences could be “educated,
informed and entertained”. Whether
or not television still performs this
function is moot, but the power of
film to achieve these aims remains.
DVD is an even more effective medium
than television in many ways because
it’s as permanent as is currently
possible. Unlike a television programme,
it can be played over whenever you
choose. “A really good film on an
artistic subject can never be comprehended
fully in its first viewing” says Nupen,
so it pays to have something you can
revisit. Moreover, the use of chapters
enables you to return to specific
passages, just like the bookmarks
in a book. “DVD is encyclopaedic,
comprehensive and inclusive”, says
Nupen. We can turn to a DVD at any
time, for however long as we need,
and whenever we are ready, and so
much more can be included in a DVD.
Television doesn’t give the viewer
such options. Moreover, it’s “always
in a hurry”, to use Nupen’s own terms.
Everything must be produced to format,
and to deadlines which don’t allow
for the intrinsic need of artistic
innovation. Nupen and his team at
Allegro, David Findlay and Peter Heelas
have been working together for many
years. They have created extremely
high quality work. As Isaac Stern
said “Christopher Nupen’s artistic
conscience is extraordinary. He makes
the camera an instrument, not just
an observer. It is a lesson in how
alive the camera can be in response
to the inner quality of the music”.

Film is an art form, too, and Allegro
films aim for the same high standards
that the musicians they portray.

The first release in the new series
will be the seminal film “Jean Sibelius
– The Early Years - Maturity and Silence”.
It’s not a biopic, but an exploration
of the music itself, which is much
more creative and subtle. It focuses
on Sibelius’s music, and his own words.
Says Nupen, “they are extremely telling
words, extremely poetic words, extremely
deeply felt words. This man cared
more than anything else that he had
to compose music, and that he wanted
to reach people with that music ……
It’s telling the story, but it’s the
story of the work and what it has
to tell us today.” It gives remarkable
insight into Sibelius’s musical personality.
When it is released in October 2006,
it will be a major contribution not
only to Sibelius studies but to the
whole art of music appreciation.

The Sibelius film will be followed
by another great Allegro classic,
the film about Nathan Milstein. Milstein
was one of the finest violinists of
his century, acclaimed by Toscanini,
Horowitz and many others. Yet, as
Nupen recounts, “he never did one
thing to publicise his work in his
life because his mother told him,
if he publicised his work, he’d taint
his art. When Nathan died all the
musicians in the world who knew him
lamented him but there was no public
recognition, and his music was lost.
I was very lucky to get to know him,
to develop a friendship with him.
We used to have tea on Sunday afternoons.
One day, after three years, I told
him that I’d discovered that a very
early German filmmaker had filmed
Paganini in rehearsal in Frankfurt.
For a few seconds, he was startled.
And then he said “Why do you tell
me such nonsense?” And I said, “Nathan
Mironovitch, if there was film of
Paganini you were probably be first
in the queue to want to see it because
you are like that, you are more curious
than other people.” He’d once said
to me “when you stop learning, that’s
when the trouble starts!” So he said,
“Okay, you win!” and made the film.
Thus the film preserves Milstein’s
art for eternity, while Paganini’s
art is alas lost …. lost. At the age
of 82, Milstein performs with intensity,
knowing that this film will “educate,
inform and entertain” many generations
to come.

Before the age of recording, music
was live, visual and personal. Film
thus restores something of this natural
state. Just as audio recording was
an innovation in preserving performance,
audio visual recording can usher in
a new era. As performance is enhanced
by bringing in the subliminal clues
that image provides, it can develop
and expand audiences for classical
music. Being inspired by a performer
in action, picking up on nuances of
expression, as Jacqueline du Pré,
prophetically intuited, “adds a new
dimension” to the experience as a
whole.

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